Chapter 420: So Many Options; Major Themes

Friday, July 25, 2008 and on

There aren't an infinite number of w's. They are finite, just as the x, y and z dimensions are finite and bounded. The w's tend to have evolved thematic commonalities as a consequence of the properties of the synchronization process, but some random events have caused diversions which no practical amount of synchronization can bring back toward the average.

There are w's where Earth is empty of humanity. In some cases Earth is no longer habitable because it was hit by a giant asteroid, or perhaps destroyed by a Vogon construction crew to make way for a hyperspace express bypass (haha). But in other cases the planet itself is fine, being empty for other reasons, the most frequent cause being a full-on World War III a few decades ago between the Soviets, Americans and damned near everyone else; or humankind never evolved - it appears that our evolution required some luck, presumably in the far distant past given that there are none of the higher primates. There are saber-toothed tigers though, and other equally impressive animal life, such as Haast Eagles, so I'm happy. I'm going to research our absence on those Earths, but that's a long-term project that I haven't started yet. Making currently uninhabited Earths habitable (if necessary) and restocking them with life - including human life - will be relatively straightforward for me, so I'm going to use such 'spare' Earths as my little playgrounds.

I have already chosen not to meddle with Time, but I can simulate such meddling for my entertainment. On one such empty Earth I will be creating a moderately accurate copy of an Earth of five hundred years ago, and it will have an avatar of myself born as a Native American Indian. He will grow up to become an incredible Warrior Chief, so that by the time the white man arrives there will be a unified nation of tribes led by one of his apparent descendants, another of my avatars. He'll be highly skilled, including with an intuitive understanding of the ways of the white man.

Or maybe I'd ignite American Indians' scientific interest, so by the time the little, wooden European sailing ships arrive, they'd be met by the Native American navy with ships equivalent to your dimension's 1940's version of destroyers and frigates. Or maybe rather than science working, a fully functioning magical society might be more fun. I imagine dragon riders casting fireball spells would be rather difficult for wooden ships with cloth sails and non-elevating cannon to combat successfully.

My avatars will have personalities similar to mine, exceptional bodies and minds, and - I confidently predict - many large-titted lovers, but won't be aware of their godhood because that would spoil my fun. Alternatively I could have ordinary natives with me playing the roles of a pantheon of their gods. There are a lot of possible games. It'll be interesting to see how the White Man's missionaries react when an American Indian god pops in to request that they stop proselytizing.

For the scientific or magical games to work, I'll have to intervene often; very often in the magical scenario: every time a magical spell is cast. Being able to supervise at that level is simple because I can make millions of mini-minds edited to be infinitely patient and focused on specific jobs, such as giving effect to the game's magic.

A magical society might be a lot of fun. I can already envisage that the sacrifice of big-titted virgins to their God would summon great magical power. Not "sacrifice" in the bloodletting sense; well, maybe a little bit of blood. I imagine the altars of my churches will need to be longer and wider than normal. About twelve feet by twelve feet, with a soft, bouncy top and satin sheets.

Now that I think of it, magic would be a great deal of fun. Maybe I'll introduce magic into some of the real Earths. Just in a little corner seems appropriate; say in an innocuous little country like New Zealand. Next time a Kiwi archaeologist digs somewhere suitable in New Zealand, I'll create a previously unknown ancient city buried an inch under his trowel. It'll be found to contain many books, some of which will be translated as religious books dedicated to a previously unknown God. "Mark" is rather ordinary, so maybe I'd better spell it backward as "Kram" (although "FatSoHog" - short for "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" - has some comic appeal).

Someone reading the books, probably an archaeologist or linguist trying to translate them, will pronounce the god's name out loud (I can guarantee that'll happen, even if I have to put the impulse into his or her head), whereupon I'll appear in all my awesome majesty - so not in bright yellow Speedos - and if Mark Anderson exists in these dimensions, with a different face and body shape to avoid being recognized. I'll want my being summoned back to Earth to be a noteworthy event, so I'm thinking of appearing as something like a 500-foot giant, who'll telepathically ask everyone within fifty miles, "Why have you summoned me back to this planet?" That and the ensuing conversation should feature prominently in whatever passes for primetime news in New Zealand, probably screening right after the latest sheep price update. If they didn't fall asleep earlier, the rest of the world's networks should pick it up and rebroadcast it in their countries.

There would also be spell books in the city's ruins, whose spells would reliably and repeatedly work. Although, I think, only when cast within the confines of 'my' city. That'd make the world a much more interesting place without disturbing it too much. In addition, the Priests of my faith will be able to cast my spells wherever they are in the world. I shouldn't say "Priests" because given my preferences, my priests would be exact opposite of the usual image of crusty, old men. My priestesses' robes would be opposite those of the Catholic Church too.

Unlike every other faith, "faith" would not be required for mine. I would prove my existence by materializing when appropriate, chatting with my followers and ordinary people, answering their questions, discuss theology, etc. "Of course I prefer my priestesses to be pretty, young women rather than crusty, old men. If you were in my fluffy wool slippers, wouldn't you?"

My religion would be like others claim to be, in that mine would also encourage good acts. Priestesses might be permitted to start serving my church based on their physical attributes, but their advancement - including their ability to cast increasingly powerful spells - would depend on their performing good acts. Women being generally more empathetic and sympathetic than men, will better recognize the situations that require good acts, truly making them better representatives for me than crusty, old men. (Give me a minute, and I'll think of a justification for their having big tits too.)

Oops. I just had a worrying thought that could have derailed part of this plan, but it's okay, there are enough big-titted, pretty girls to satisfy my needs in a little place like New Zealand. Some w's have some weird population distributions, but most w's have about four million people in New Zealand, with an even higher proportion of them being pretty girls than is the case in the Americas I came from because New Zealanders live a healthier lifestyle.

I'll restrict priesthood membership to at least third-generation Kiwis to prevent the country being swamped by would-be Krammites. Although on second thought, my priestesses should recruit new acolytes whenever they encounter someone suitable, such as when hanging around outside Jessica Alba's home.

It'll be very interesting to see how the world reacts to the manifestation of a real God, with many godly powers, an inexhaustible interest in sex, and priestesses that travel the world using magic spells to perform very many good acts, such as: visiting hospitals to heal the good people, exposing bad people's misdeeds, and killing evil people. Not only don't I have a problem with removing people I know to be evil because I can read their minds, but I think it's a damned good idea.

If the Catholic or any other church gets upset and condemns my religious practices or me - somehow I'm guessing that's likely - I'm sure my priestesses will be able to find some dirt on them. I like the idea of casting a "Truth" spell on the badmouthing bishop and having him divulge everything bad he knows about his church, such as its pedophilic practices and cover-ups. I'll make sure my priestess includes, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" into her closing comments because I like the idea of using their own words against them.

I'm sure there are some major financial irregularities and other misdeeds within every major church too, whereas the only things 'wrong' in my church will be sex and killing evil people, neither of which I consider wrong. Otherwise we'll be doing a HUGE amount of real-world, practical good. I'll even write up a little Good Book for my religion too ("Kram's Guide for a Good Life"); something very short, totally unambiguous, and with heavy emphasis on taking personal responsibility. I've made a mental note to make sure it includes some positive attitudes about sex.

^

If I'm playing unrealistic games, I could even have a few w's where young guys find:

• A buried alien spaceship, in return for being rescued the AI of which gives the boy amazing mental powers.

• A magic lamp, the genie from which gives the boy amazing mental powers.

• An Egyptian amulet, that when worn gives the boy amazing mental powers.

• A technological or chemical invention that, as it happens, gives the boy amazing mental powers.

Would the boys' subsequent behaviors be consistent with so much of the fiction written about such events? Somehow I think they would.

It'd be interesting to give an equal number of girls the same opportunities to see what they do with them. Because girls are involved, that's a GREAT deal harder to predict, even for me.

Time is a strange thing - FAR stranger than humanity's best scientists currently think. Leaving most of the nature of Time to one side, because you'd never understand it anyway, I'll mention these aspects:

• The present is when everything happens, so maybe my breaking the restraints on "present" would stop everything happening.

• Consciousness is woven into the fabric of the universe, and consciousness needs a flow of time to have meaning.

I believe I could break the constraint of Time, but I fear the consequences of doing so. First, I'm not sure whether it would affect the fabric of the Universe, but if it did, I fear the effect could be detrimental on the largest possible scale: all conscious life might no longer be possible, and other bad things like that, some of which could be even worse.

Second, I'm fearful of the effect on me of making my consciousness timeless. I can imagine myself being as aware across time as I am across space, but what would that do to me? Would my life have purpose if I could find out the consequences of an action immediately 'after' thinking of it? Or even 'before' I thought of it! How would I have FUN? And, believe me, that's a very, very serious question. Not just for me but for you too. You REALLY don't want a God who has no sense of fun! That'd be far worse than having a figment of your imagination who had no sense of fun. (One of the reasons I disrespect religious people so much, in addition to all their unprovoked attacks on me and everyone else that dares to be different from them, is because they're fucked in the head. They've created figments of their imaginations who are assholes, when they could have invented gods who were sources of fun and joy. The nicest thing I can say about such people is, "What morons!")

So for the moment I'm going to retain moments; I'm going to leave Time alone. Not physically interfering with it doesn't stop me looking and listening through it though. I am already non-destructively looking through time.

It's easy for me to look at past events that were observed at the time they occurred because there's no uncertainty about them. It's as easy as watching a TV program. I looked at and listened to the past whenever this autobiography needed to quote a conversation that I wasn't a party to, which happened hundreds of times. Thus you, my reader, can be assured of this document's accuracy. [Strictly speaking, I didn't "listen". The end result would have been the same if I had listened, but the process was considerably more complicated. Things don't "happen" in the past because they've already happened. "Happening" can only happen in the present. When I want to listen to something in the past, I have to see the state of the air just outside each person's mouth, then I slip my perspective through the past toward the present, watching the changes to the air's density at that place. That gives me information about the sound waves, which I can translate into sounds, which I can decode into words. It's tedious, which is why I've modified part of my mind so it does it automatically for me, sparing me from having to think about it. I've done the same for sight and even smell too (I'm sure you can work out how). Because my mind is so powerful, I can fast-forward through the past considerably faster than the original 1 second per second rate, very quickly learning what happened.]

Harder is looking into a previously unobserved volume, for example, inside a closed box, possibly containing a cat and an atom of radioactive material. The Universe cannot collapse probability fields in the past because the past has passed and the opportunity to do something has been lost. Quantum probability collapses occur only in the present. Everything occurs only in the present; that's what it is! If I look at a previously unobserved volume and it has unresolved probabilities, then I see all the probabilities. That gives me a headache! I'm joking - most of my minds don't bother having a head, let alone permit it to ache - but you get the idea: the previously unobserved past is "fuzzy".

Looking at the future gets fuzzier FAR faster! Let's say I look into the past (it doesn't matter how far), into a room that has been sealed shut and unobserved for the 24 hours before the time I'm looking at. Let's say a glass of water was left on a table in that room. How much water it contains will be fuzzy because the evaporation rate - being the location of the water molecules - won't have been decided by the Universe's Consciousness. It should be clear that there will only be a minor amount of fuzziness though. Now consider that I open the door (in the present, of course), look at the room so all its visible probabilities are collapsed, then I look 24 hours into the future. The contents of the room will be VERY fuzzy. There are probabilities of all sorts of people coming into the room over the next 24 hours, there's a probability of an earthquake, a house fire, a 747 crashing into the roof, etc. The future has a huge number of different possibilities, and therefore a great deal of fuzziness. The past - back when it was the present - had already decided that no 747s crashed, etc., so all those probabilities are zero.

Looking into the future can very quickly become a pointless exercise, how quickly depending on what I am looking at. Looking twenty four hours ahead into a locked box that has been encased in concrete and buried doesn't have many possibilities, so the view would have very little fuzz. Looking six hours ahead into a busy store has a very large amount of uncertainty. Looking into the same store a year ahead would be a complete waste of effort unless all I wanted was to get a feel for the likelihood that the store still exists then. (Just to make sure you understand, looking in that store a year in the past would be crystal clear if there had been someone in it at that time, as their observing the store would have caused all the probabilities to collapse, so there would be no fuzziness when I look back from now to observe it then.) Fortunately Julia has calmed down about fashion otherwise I could imagine her begging me to travel through time to fetch the next season's fashions for her, even at the risk of destroying all conscious life in the Universe. She's going to be disappointed that I can't even look into the future to see those designs because the fuzziness will increase too quickly. If anything in this Universe is "fuzzy", it has to be the fashion-setting process.

If I was limited to having a single body that I couldn't survive without, which is a quaintly amusing idea, then I'd modify my "overwatch" idea into an "aheadwatch", looking a minute or so ahead. With my power, if I got a minute's warning that something bad might happen to my body, then no matter what it was I'd have time to take care of it, write a few chapters about it in my autobiography, and have a cup of coffee afterward.

I don't have to worry about my physical safety. If every nuclear weapon on every Earth spontaneously exploded and destroyed all of my human bodies, none of my minds in the blast radius would be harmed, and the ones off Earth obviously wouldn't be either. Any of them could almost instantly recreate a body for me. I could even recreate the Earth if necessary. I don't NEED future-looking bodyguards, but each of my bodies will have one just because it's more convenient. I'll stop myself from being routinely aware of the future my bodyguard is sensing because having to react in the present will normally be more interesting for me. In the event that the bodyguard thinks the options are particularly interesting, it can always tell me about them.

I will also keep future-looking eyes on my loved ones to make sure nothing bad could be about to happen to them. That's probably going to be the only important use of my future-viewing ability, although it's not as important as you might think because even if they are killed I can effectively resurrect them (why only "effectively" is discussed later).

I still might view the future on other occasions if something happens to cause me to want to look ahead. If in one of the w's a nuclear bomb exploded next to the White House, I could immediately look ahead in all the other w's to see what sort of threat those White Houses are under. It's likely that some would be in immediate peril, while others wouldn't be. I would have time to decide whether to stop the explosions or not. I probably would not, and for once in this autobiography that's not a derogatory dig about politicians. I will, for the most part, let humanity experience the consequences of its decisions. Just because those consequences are very bad for some humans is no reason to stop them. It could even be reasonably argued that it's particularly important to let the bad decisions play out. Plus there's the problem of where would I draw the line because there is a never-ending multitude of bad things happening all the time, many of which are only bad from some perspectives and are good from others. I'd be a schizo God if I tried to manage them all.

I will have to stop some VERY bad things. Humanity's despoiling of the environment, for example, is far more destructive than any single bomb could be, especially one that wiped out a large number of politicians! I know I'm very derogatory toward that group, but if you'd lived through what I often failed to live through, and then looked inside their minds, you wouldn't have any semblance of charity toward their motives and morals either. It is said that power corrupts, but the vast majority of our nation's politicians were corrupted even before they'd taken many steps on their path toward that power. It was often their actively seeking more corruption that got them on the path to political power in the first place.

I'd be tempted to let even environmental destruction go unchecked. There are plenty of w's so what does losing a few Earths matter? Unfortunately that particular problem exists in nearly all of the w's in which humans populate Earth. I imagine you won't be surprised to learn that despoiling is a common human behavior. I won't clean up the environment for you as that'd encourage even more rapacious behavior. I'll simply make sure science advances far enough in the right fields to give most humanities the information they need to understand enough about what it's doing. The especially badly led human civilizations might collapse totally, but there are plenty of w's and I am in favor of people 'living by' the consequences of their actions, even if it kills large numbers of them.

Researching my autobiography has provided me with some enjoyment, such as from one of the Chloe Moons thanking me for fixing her body and mind; and unknown to her, fixing her cross-dimensional twins too. I've also enjoyed scanning through the more interesting conversations that I hadn't been able to hear the first time through. My research has also provided me with a few surprises, such as discovering that many of the Lily Chengs had gotten pregnant by me. February 20, 2006 had been my child's birthday in most of the relevant w's, making my son nearly two and half years old now.

I have checked, and was pleased to see that the Chengs are doing very good jobs of raising little "Ma Kè." He's important to them, they have enough money to provide him with everything he needs, and the extended family is very attentive to his upbringing, so all of those boys have good environments. No father figure, but plenty of male cousins, uncles and grandfathers, plus a large collection of women who dote on him.